Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared a police officer in a September 2022 encounter with a suspect who was shot at in Hamilton’s downtown.
In a ruling, Special Investigations Unit (SIU) director Joseph Martino suggested the officer used “reasonable force” during a Sept. 8 situation he believed was an acceptable defence “from grievous bodily harm or death” from a suspect wielding a handgun.
The SIU’s incident narrative described a pursuit in which a 44-year-old, sought for a series of firearm-related offences, was cornered in a parking lot northeast of King Street East and East Avenue North.
Despite calls from officers to drop a handgun the suspect was allegedly using to threaten harm to himself, an officer fired a stun gun-like weapon at the man with little effect, according to the SIU report.
Additional stun guns would be fired at the suspect, as well as a round from a pistol, which missed the man.
Officers were then able to remove the gun from the suspect’s right hand and handcuff him.
He was not seriously injured in the arrest.
“The officer might have resorted to his CEW (conducted energy weapon), as other officers did, but that weapon did not bring with it the immediate stopping power of a firearm – as was illustrated in the instant case when the initial CEW deployment appears not to have incapacitated the complainant,” Martino explained.
The SIU says it has now closed its investigation.